Scottish eviction reforms need scrutiny

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The Scottish Government is aiming to sign into law Part 4 of the Coronavirus Bill (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland). The legislation would permanently make all grounds for eviction discretionary, meaning a tribunal would not have to automatically remove a tenant in cases of anti-social behaviour

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Confusion about HMO definition?

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Hi All, I will soon become a property owner and I wanted to rent out two rooms to help with the mortgage and bills.

I live in Croydon (where full planning permission is required for any kind of HMO) I must be careful to not hit the threshold for an HMO.

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Seek heating advice to help keep energy costs in check

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Landlords should ask plumbers what they can do to get their properties heat pump ready without necessarily ditching the gas boiler, advises a top energy expert.

Speaking on the Hamilton Fraser property podcast, Rik Smith, head of tenancy services at Goodlord, said although they didn’t need to think about switching immediately, they could consider doing more insulation or fitting larger radiators so the boiler could be set at 50 degrees rather than 70 or 80 degrees, to provide a consistent lower temperature.

Boiler dimensions

“A boiler needs to be the correct size to run efficiently,” he told listeners. “Fitting a 30kw boiler to a two-bed semi is too big and it will run inefficiently. Another tip is that if you have a hot water tank in a house, don’t be tempted to replace it now with a combi boiler. In the future, it will be to your advantage to store water so you’ll need a water tank.”

Smith also advised landlords to reach out to tenants who might be struggling with higher energy bills by telling them about available support, such as The Warm Home Discount Scheme. “The sooner you get sight that your tenant is struggling to pay, the sooner you can help them by asking if they’ve accessed that available money or to offer a payment plan.” He added: “Tenants should talk to energy suppliers who are obliged to help, and the online chat function can be very effective when getting hold of these companies rather than using the phone.”

Storage heaters

Smith expects investment in renewables to accelerate and the demand for electricity to rise. “There will be increasing incentives for households to generate and store electricity,” he said. “There’s an idea that ‘time of use’ tariffs might help you stop using electricity at peak times while some kind of storage heaters might come back.”

Hamilton Fraser has published a guide for landlords to surviving the cost of living crisis.

View Full Article: Seek heating advice to help keep energy costs in check

Scottish landlords must wait weeks to try out new deposit website

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Scotland’s leading tenancy deposit scheme SafeDeposits has been forced to halt plans for its new online portal at the last minute due to technical problems.

The not-for-profit organisation had planned to launch today (29th June) but has had to delay until 18^th July. It now needs to make further checks but promises customers that in the meantime, they can use its old system until 13^th July when it will close the website to allow for the migration of data.

Smooth transition

Mike Smith, head of SafeDeposits Scotland, says: “The delivery of the new system is a project of over two years in the making and we are disappointed to have to temporarily halt proceedings so close to launch, but we have done so in the interests of ensuring a smooth transition. We are sorry for any inconvenience at this time.”

New features include the ability for tenants to create their own SafeDeposits Scotland user account so they can view any of their present and past deposits protected by the scheme in one place, while tenants will have the option to change the lead tenant through their account.

Deposit registered

Landlord details will be tied to properties they have previously registered deposits for, and the system will suggest the correct landlord to add to the deposit when a new deposit is being registered.

The online negotiation process will also be expanded so that – before committing to Alternative Dispute Resolution – parties can adjust their claims and negotiate back and forth via their accounts, while the evidence gathering process will be improved to help ensure evidence submissions are watertight.

View Full Article: Scottish landlords must wait weeks to try out new deposit website

Government review into the effect of short-term holiday lets

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A government review into the effect of short-term holiday lets will seek to improve the holiday letting market for those living in popular tourism destinations.

The scheme, proposed in a new government review looking at the impact of increases in short-term and holiday lets in England

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